Derek Mason has a good old-fashioned quarterback battle on his hands at Vanderbilt.

Mason and the offense have to replace the departed Kyle Shurmur. The two battling for the position are Riley Neal, who transferred from Ball State, and Deuce Wallace, who missed last season due to a suspension.

But don’t expect to hear Neal’s or Wallace’s thoughts on how the competition is going during the first part of fall camp, because they’re off limits to the media.

“Quarterbacks will be off limits (to the media),” Mason said. “I just want to make sure for these guys that they’re about practice right now. They got to make sure that they worry about what they need to focus on and I’m going to take a lot of pressure off these guys and let these guys just compete and have some fun.”

By not letting his quarterbacks speak to the media, Mason insists that he’s taking the pressure off of them until one emerges as a starter. Mason also told the media that they’ll (meaning the media) be able to know where things stand once they are able to watch practice during media availability.

The Vanderbilt coach isn’t shying away from the quarterback battle either; he loves the idea of the competition.

“We need a quarterback battle. … It just raises everybody’s level of awareness as to details and what they need to do because they know that there’s a battle,” Mason said. “And hopefully they are trying to ride the coattails of one of these two guys at some point in time … It just brings a different type of mood and element to practice.”

You can watch Mason’s full press conference below: